Description: The McIver Clan has a very interesting history dating back to the 12th century. In the 1700’s when many early McIver’s emigrated from Scotland to America, the language they spoke was Gaelic. McIver in Gaelic is spelled MacIomhair. “Mac” means “son of” and “Iomhair” is the Gaelic name that resulted in the English version, “Iver.” Thus, the name means “son of Iver.” Today in Scotland, the “son of” prefix is still written as “Mac,” while Americans generally use the shorter form, “Mc.” In earlier years, it was frequently written simply as M+apostrophe, as in M’Iver. Until 1828 when the first Webster’s dictionary was published, it was acceptable to spell words and names as they sounded, leading to many variations of spellings, even among relatives. Among the MacIver derivations are MacIvor, McIver, Iverach, and Ure. Spelling variations we have seen are McKeever, McEevor, McEivor, and McIvor. The Danish and Norwegian version is Iverson, and the Swedish version is Ivarsson or Iwarsson. We welcome and encourage participation in this Project by all descendants of MacIver, regardless of name spelling or pronunciation. Surnames in Project: The McIver Surname Project was started with five pioneer participants, all with the McIver surname. Project Goals: The McIver Surname Project was established as an aid to traditional means of family research. Several branches of McIver’s have reached the limits of data from paper trails. This project will allow researchers from different lineages to compare Y-signatures to determine relationships that can move us forward in our research. We also hope to establish whether our early ancestors were Norse or Celtic. Requirements: The five pioneer participants used the Y-DNA37 test. The FamilyTreeDNA website explains that females would use the mtDNA test to trace lineage through female ancestors, while the Y tests apply only to males. Participants in the McIver Surname Project, therefore, must be male and share a common surname. Females who want to participate in this project should locate and arrange for a male relative from the surname line to be tested. MacIver MacIvor McIver Iverach Ure McKeever McEevor McEivor McIvor Iverson Ivarsson Iwarsson